Any views or opinions presented in this blog are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of the company. This blog is a unique perspective of one persons journey into fitness. Not all clients and participants at Parsons Training undergo the same training, and each person makes his or her own decisions regarding dietary discretions.

By Steve Sharpton, Parsons Training Center, Tucson, Arizona

PHASE VIIJanuary 12, 2017

As you all may know, one thing that definitely makes me day is when I get the chance to vent about various things while also pointing some valuable information out. Typically I keep most of my opinions to myself, not because I am scared to speak out loud and say things that might shake the body politic, it’s just I really don’t have the time or the energy to really waste arguing with people about stuff. Back when I was a homebody and had no dogs or anything, getting into all day arguments with people was completely fun. Regardless of sports of politics or which Hollywood starlet would make the best wife (my choices are still Lacey Chabert or Kat Dennings…hehe) I would go on for hours. So yes, these days if I keep seeing a consistent pattern of buffoonery from someone, I would just rather drop their butts than keep seeing their nonsense and their hatred and their negativity show up on my feeds. I dropped a lot of people that went nuts over that horrible crime those four African American teens did in Chicago, mainly due to the racist nonsense going back and forth. And then some had the magnanimous chutzpah to say there would be a media frenzy if the races were switched. Actually, something like this did happen last year and no one even talked about it. http://www.essence.com/news/white-teen-avoids-jail-for-rape-of-black-student No outcries, no calls for public hangings, no name calling, no call for people to take up arms. Nothing. No one even protested the fact the perpetrators will get off scot free provided they cause no problems over the next three years. So yeah, spare me the bullshit. Now I could go on about several other subjects pertaining to this, but this is not the forum for such a thing. Anyway, I do like saying some things in anger every now and then, alerting people to new ideas or new problems that might come around. Sometimes you need to be loud and testy in order to get the attention of some people. With the new year starting and millions of people going to the gym for the first time, it’s time to set some records straight about our daily living. You see, the beginning of the year brings out all of the craziest ideas, health alerts and diets to fill up an entire website. Some of it is legit but others are not. Let me just put it this way, you need to be aware of your own body and your own health, because some interesting stuff is coming out of the woodworks.

KNOW YOUR DEFICIENCIES

AMERICA! START EATING SOME DAMN VEGGIES!!

​There was a pretty interesting article I saw recently about heart health, and it brought up some good points about maintaining your health. http://www.click2houston.com/health/despite-healthy-lifestyle-many-may-suffer-from-genetic-mutation-that-affects-the-aorta This was kind of a scary article for me to look at, mainly due to the idea of genetic mutations or passed on repressive genes that could ultimately decide our fate in life without us even knowing. I find this little genetic game of roulette rather unfair, mainly because how would we know the deck is stacked against us without even knowing it? Of course, this article brings up a rather interesting point in terms of patterns and familial death rates. People having a pre-disposed disposition for something can definitely play into your health, and this is especially true when it comes to people with diabetes and other heart conditions. As for my family, I have yet to really figure out what sort of problem might be down the line for me. Between the two sides of my families, there has been heart disease, diabetes and possibly dementia…so needless to say I have to look at the options about my lifestyle. Clearly, knowing the health problems from my mother’s half should have made me less reluctant to become such a giant, bloviated eating machine during my unhealthy days. I knew exactly what this disease could do to me yet I refused to really put the effort into avoiding the problem.

Thankfully, the new road I have taken has seen some rather positive changes and having a full understanding of my body and what could be waiting for me was an excellent way for me to help with my decision to go vegan. Reducing my sugars all definitely aid in avoiding the potential diabetes problems, especially after kicking my soda and sweets habits for the most part. Losing the weight will also make it much easier for me to avoid this rapidly developing scourge that is overtaking our country. Also, eating a much lower fat diet and removing dairy from my life will make it much harder for potential problem that has stricken several members of my family….a poorly developed left anterior descending artery (or better known as the widow maker). A couple members of my mother’s family have this affliction, so this is something I will have to be weary about in my later life. The good thing is I know some the symptoms involved and I have made the necessary changes in my diet to accommodate that weird development. So while some people might not consider family history as some sort of legitimate reason to keep track of your health, it does play a good role in your prevention. Because let’s face it, the stronger and healthier you are the better you will be able to survive any potential problems in addition to recovering from the said problem. You owe it to yourself to know a little more about your family besides the cover of the book.

USE YOUR WEEKENDS WISELY

Weekend warriors who like to play rigorous may still be saving themselves from future problems.

​We have all heard the term “Weekend Warrior,” and it has become such a part of the lexicon that int sometimes means literal combat for some people (of course, this is usually on the paint ball field but I digress). A lot of us partake in various athletic leagues—and no, beer league softball doesn’t count—to kind of get away from the stress of the normal week and keep us active. A lot of us are former athletes that just want to keep tapping into that familiar life of prepping for an opponent and playing to compete against other people. And then you would have someone like myself, someone that is looking to get more involved and do something other than the standard far of working out. Back in the day when I was extremely heavy (roughly 260 pounds), I tried playing basketball at a local league. Sure, I was not a starter (thankfully) but it as pretty obvious that my health made me a rather lowly players n my team’s totem pole. If I had not been such a hard worker, I never would have gotten any playing time. Of course I showed up for every game so that often times got me some playing time, mainly because not all people take something like rec-league basketball all too seriously. Anyway, a new study has found that even if you do just the weekend stuff and stay relatively exercise free during the week, you are still doing yourself a favor health wise. http://www.cnn.com/2017/01/09/health/weekend-exercise-benefits/

Now the general rule of thumb is that people should get at least 150 minutes of moderate exercise a week. Up to this point, it was generally concluded that you should have these particular workouts spread out over the week, aiding in much healthier lifestyle going forward. Of course, this is not always the case, because a lot of people might have a lotto paperwork to do, deal with the kids and also deal with other life issues before they ever have the chance to get to the gym. Anyway, a new study indicates that whether you spread that 150 minutes out over the course of the week or just on the weekend doesn’t really matter. Over the course of 18 years in a study based in England and Scotland, researchers found that weekend warriors had about a 40% lower risk of death due to cardiovascular disease, 30% lower risk of overall death and 18% lower risk of death due to cancer as compared to the people that didn’t partake in any exercise. Now of course, these numbers will be impressive against any person that is not exercising, but the gist of the study seems to illustrate that the quality of the working out may be just as important as the quantity when it comes to your overall health. Of course, if you have other goal that may encompass different things you are seeking out, such as bigger muscles or you are training for a long distance race, the getting more hours n the gym and track during the week would be essential. Of course, the primary risk for living this sort of lifestyle is the exposure to injury and other ailments, but that is mostly predicated on the fact you are in good shape to begin with or not. But this leads int the next rant, because even you are a weekend warrior, you are contributing to some good news in this country.

GETTING AHEAD OF THE CURVE

The left anterior descending artery may be a tricky problem in my later life, so it is a good thing I have started making the changes now.

There was a new study that was published just yesterday by the Center for Disease Control, pointing some decent news (and a few bits of bad news) in regards to the overall health of the country. http://www.livescience.com/57455-us-health-report-health-progress-2020.html Back in 2010, the CDC set up a 26-point plan to measure the overall health of the average American. Gathering through the use of hard data and interviewed data, it seems the US is doing pretty well seven years into the 10-year plan. Now these particular things that were measured were all of various aspects of the general health of America, not just from the measured health of exercise. Some other categories included the number of people with health care, the number of people seeing the dentist and even the amount of reproductive health care available to women. So many things are thrown into this study, it is easy to say we are doing well or we are doing terribly. Either way, eight of the measurements indicated the US was exceeding the goals, one of those goals being the amount of time people are putting into their health and fitness. Another eight standards were also met, meaning 16 out the 26 points of interest are being met. Now of course, with the other ten areas of interest, we are slightly behind with what we are supposed to be doing. This is the most problematic area, primarily because a lot of the measurements could have serious consequences toward our overall health. As a country, we still binge drink too much and the obesity rate, while slowed, is still growing. A couple of other areas of concern are the fact people are still not eating enough vegetables, which probably explains why nearly 40% of our nation’s produce is thrown away.

Now this study is not something that meant to scare the hell out of us, for the idea of knowing your faults and weaknesses will certainly help you understand the problems you may be facing down the line. Basically,this whole study seems to reiterate what I was talking about earlier. Either way, it also indicates that we have to have a full commitment to your health, that even though we are doing well in some areas, we are increasingly doing poorly in certain areas that are killing the health of the country. If anything, being able to get ahead of the curve on such points of emphasis are extremely important. Doing one thing to improve yourself may be good, but if you are ignoring the rest, you might as well have some concrete shoes on because you may be going nowhere.

About Parsons TrainingParsons Training is a Tucson leader in fitness and personal wellness training. Every personal trainer with this company designs and implements effective fitness programs for their clients; these programs serve as the foundation for good health, fitness, and wellness. Additional information about Parsons Training is available at http://www.parsonspersonaltraining.com

Any views or opinions presented in this blog are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of the company.

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Steve, a Parsons Training Client, went from 400 pounds to Running half-marathons, from lifting pizzas to lifting hundreds of pounds through training with us.

When you read this blog you are reading through the eyes of someone who is winning the battle of real weight loss. Steve is not a professional or someone highly educated in this field, but he is someone we can all learn from.

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​Any views or opinions presented in this blog are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of the company. Any dietary or fitness commentary is exclusively that of the author and in now way dictated by the company.